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Six volumes of Record of Famous Sights of the Tōkaidō Road, and their box
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Description
This set of albums is a travel guide depicting sights along the Tōkaidō Road – the main highway linking Japan’s capital Edo with Kyoto, where the Emperor lived. Each volume contains busy scenes of station towns along the route, followed by written descriptions. Shown here are Edo, with the shogun’s castle in the background (right) and the mountain town of Hakone (left).
The artist was an anonymous town painter working in the Tosa style. The gold cloud patterns framing the paintings are a traditional decorative device, focusing attention on the images between them. The central gold bands separate the foreground scenes of bustling activity from the more distant background.
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Details
- Associated place
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Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kyōto prefecture › Kyoto (probable place of creation)Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kyōto prefecture › Kyoto (subject)Asia › Japan › Honshū › Tōkaidō road (subject)
- Date
- late 17th century
- Artist/maker
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formerly attributed to Tosa Mitsuoki (1617 - 1691) (artist)style of Tosa School (early 15th century - late 19th century)
- Material and technique
- ink, colour, gold, and gold dust on paper; albums bound with brocade; wooden box, covered with lacquer
- Dimensions
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box 17 x 21 x 17.5 cm (height x width x depth)
double page 17.5 x 28.1 cm (height x width)
each album, closed 17.5 x 14.5 x 2 cm (height x width x depth)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › gold,
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 7
- Credit line
- Presented by C. W. Christie-Miller, 1959.
- Accession no.
- EA1959.85
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Further reading
Katz, Janice, Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with an introductory essay by Oliver Impey (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2003), no. 51 on pp. 174-176, pp. 13 & 153, illus. pp. 174-177 & 176-177
Glossary
lacquer
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lacquer
Chinese and Japanese lacquer is made from the sap of the lacquer tree, which is indigenous to Eastern China. It is applied to wood as a varnish or for decorative effect. In India and the Middle East, lacquer is made from the deposit of the lac insect.
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
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